MacIver Institute

The John K. MacIver Institute for Public Policy is a Wisconsin-based think tank that, according to its web site, promotes free markets, individual freedom, personal responsibility and limited government. According to One Wisconsin Now, the MacIver Institute is "'a pro-corporate organization founded in 2009 to advance conservative ideas and values...Its top staff is long-time Republican campaign strategists and its board of directors includes leading Republicans, most notably Mark Block, the head of Americans for Prosperity-WI, Fred Lubar, deep-pocketed Republican donor and Jim Troupis, lawyer to leading Republicans such as Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen and ethically-challenged Supreme Court Justices Mike Gableman and Annette Ziegler."

The Institute operates the web site WisconsinOpenGov.org, which it says “provides you with one location for data on Wisconsin public employee salaries, benefits and labor contracts. We have worked hard to not just allow 'access' the way many government information sites do, but to give you all of the data in a format that allows you to select and sort the information as you see fit.”

Institute representatives claim to have caught doctors in white coats in February, 2011 directing Madison, Wisconsin protesters to places where they could obtain absentee excuses for the time they were out of work marching in protest of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's "budget repair" bill. However, irregularities were found in the report. The absentee letters listed the doctor as "Kathy Orton," but no Kathy Orton was found to be listed as a Wisconsin doctor. Also, the contact listed on the doctors notes was "Badgerdoctors@gmail.com," but there was no listing for "Badgerdoctors" which would presume would be the name of the medical group or association that the "doctors" were from.

Method of Operation and reporting irregularities
The MacIver Institute claims to be a news service, but it actually gathers-- and in some cases seems to create-- "news" footage designed to advance a conservative, anti-worker agenda.

MacIver reporter fails to reveal his identity to interviewees
Former television reporter Bill Osmulski works for the MacIver Institute. In 2009 he was charged with obtaining interviews with two elected Wisconsin officials under false pretenses, by failing to disclose his affiliation with MacIver. Osmulski led the two officials he spoke with to believe he was conducting the interview for a local television station. When asked about the incident, Osmulski claimed he did not reveal his affiliation because the officials did not ask him for it, but Stephen Ward, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Journalism Ethics, said reporters have a duty to disclose their affiliation and the purpose of their interview prior to conducting the interview. "You should be open about all your affiliations in advance," Ward said.

Irregularities in the MacIver Institute "doctor's note" video
The MacIver Institute created a video in which the organization claimed to have caught doctors in white coats in February, 2011 directing Madison, Wisconsin protesters to places where they could obtain absentee excuses for the time they were out of work marching in protest of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's "budget repair" bill. However, numerous irregularities were found in the reporting. The names of the "doctors" listed on the notes could not be verified. The notes listed the doctor as "Kathy Orton," but no Kathy Orton was found to be listed as a Wisconsin doctor. Also, the contact listed on the doctors notes was "Badgerdoctors@gmail.com," but no listing for "Badgerdoctors" existed, which one would presume to be the name of the medical group or association the "doctors" were from. Usually in protest situations, the final negotiation with employers forgives the days missed for protests, but this information was not mentioned in MacIver's "report." It was also revealed that videographer who shot the "doctor's note" footage was Christian Hartstock, a friend of Andrew Breitbart, who is known for putting misleading videos on his web site, BigGovernment.com

Brett Healy reported on Andrew Breitbart's BigGovernment.com web site on May 4, 2011 that the video "'won an award for their reporting of the labor unrest at the State Capitol. MacIver beat out international competition to win the Grand Prize in the ‘Lights Camera, Liberty’ contest, which was presented at The Atlas Experience conference in Dallas, Texas last week. 'We congratulate the leadership and staff of the MacIver Institute for their tremendous achievements in reaching large audiences through video communications and for the critical role they continue to play educating citizens of Wisconsin and the nation,' said Brad Lips, Chief Executive Officer of the Atlas Economic Research Foundation. The award winning video... was narrated and produced for the MacIver News Service by investigative reporter Bill Osmulski.'"

Ties to the Kochs
ThinkProgress reports that the MacIver Institute has numerous ties to the billionaire Koch Brothers, billionaire co-owners of Koch Industries, which has numerous business interests in Wisconsin. ThinkProgress writes, "Mark Block, the Americans for Prosperity Wisconsin state director and a key figure in the alleged voter suppression plot, sits on MacIver’s board of directors. MacIver and AFP Wisconsin also share two other board members, David Fettig and Fred Luber. MacIver also works closely with AFP Wisconsin as part of the Wisconsin Prosperity Network, along with another group with ties to Koch funding, American Majority. The think tank also participates in the Koch-funded Institute for Humane Studies’ Koch Summer Fellows Program and is a member of the Koch-funded State Policy Network."

Staff
Cory Liebmann of the Eye on Wisconsin web site discovered that former Republican Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen writes press releases for the MacIver Institute, even though his name is not on the releases and the Institute has denied Jensen is formally involved with the organization. Jensen's authorship of the releases, Liebmann instructs, can be discovered by accessing one of the organization's press releases, right-clicking on it and observing the document properties (e.g. "Author:Scott Jensen"). Jensen also authored a PowerPoint presentation on the Institute's web site.

Jensen is controversial because he was the subject of an eight-year criminal case for misconduct while he was in office in Wisconsin. The case concluded in December, 2010 after Jensen agreed to pay a $5,000 civil forfeiture fine and reimburse the state of Wisconsin $67,174 in legal fees initially borne by taxpayers, according to a plea deal. Waukesha County Circuit Judge Patrick L. Snyder found Jensen guilty of an ethics code violation related to his using his government position for illegal gain. Felony charges against Jensen were dropped under the deal. Jensen also has a 2006 misdemeanor conviction in Dane County for violating the public trust. In 2002, Jensen (along with other GOP leaders in the State Assembly) was charged with using taxpayer dollars to run a secret, illegal campaign machine out of the Capitol.

The president of MacIver Institute is Brett Healy, who worked for Scott Jensen for 12 years and was Jensen's Chief of Staff during the time Jensen was brought up on criminal charges. During Jensen's trial, Healy contradicted testimony offered by two staffers he supervised, Leigh (Himebauch) Searl and Carrie (Hoeper) Richard -- that Jensen was fully aware of the campaign work they and others did on behalf of Taxpayers for Jensen while at the office. In testimony given prior Healy's in the trial, Leigh (Himebauch) Searl said that for four months in 2000, she worked on Jensen's campaign while drawing a state salary and occupying an office at the Republican Party of Wisconsin. Healy testified that he was unaware of that arrangement. Healy went on to become a lobbyist for School Choice Wisconsin in Milwaukee.

The MacIver Institute's Director of Communications is Brian Fraley, who served as the Senior Vice President for State Affairs at America's Health Insurance Plans in Washington, D.C. Fraley was also the national Health and Human Services Task Force Private Sector Chairman for the American Legislative Exchange Council.

The Institute's Treasurer, Mark Block, was State Director of the Wisconsin chapter of Americans for Prosperity. Block was banned from politics and fined $15,000 for participating in an illegal scheme in the campaign of Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Jon Wilcox. Block served as Wilcox's campaign manager. Block illegally coordinated $200,000 worth of campaign activity with a group that pretended to be operating independently. The person who ran that "independent" group was fined $35,000 and was also banned from Wisconsin state politics for five years. Justice Wilcox also paid a $10,000 fine. The fines were the largest ever assessed against a campaign in Wisconsin's history

The Institute's Educational Policy Analyist, Christian D'Andrea, was formerly a Policy Analyst and State Program Director with the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, which was named after free market economist Milton Friedman. That organization, which has since changed its name to the Foundation for Educational Choice, advocates the use of voucher systems for education, a system that allows taxpayer funds to flow to private schools.

Background
According to the Eye on Wisconsin blog, the domain name maciverinstitute.com was privately registered in December, 2008, "with no one willing to lay public claim to the new org[anization]."

Board

 * Fred Luber, Board Chair
 * Steve Fettig, of Delavan, WIBoard Vice Chair,
 * Jim Troupis of Madison
 * Laurie McCallum, former First Lady of Wisconsin
 * Carl Kuehne of Green Bay (is Secretary of the Green Bay Packers and a member of its Executive Committee.)
 * Gerardo (Jerry) H. Gonzalez of Milwaukee is a partner with Gonzalez, Saggio and Harlan LLP.

Funding
The MacIver Institute receives funding from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, and has reportedly received $300,000 from them from 2008-2010 to support general operations.

Sourcewatch resources

 * Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation

PRWatch articles

 * Anne Landman Consider the Source: MacIver News Service, PRWatch.org, March 15, 2011
 * Lisa Graves A CMD Special Report: Who Are the Headliners at Koch-Funded AFP Conventions?, PRWatch.org, March 29, 2011
 * PR Watcher Center for Media and Democracy Submits Amicus Brief Defending Campaign Disclosure Rules, PRWatch.org, March 9, 2011

External resources

 * Don Walker Groups seek emails of Democratic lawmakers, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, March 31, 2011

Contact
The John K. MacIver Institute for Public Policy Brett Healy, President 44 East Mifflin Street, Suite 201 Madison, WI 53703 Phone: 1.608.588.6477